Monday, 16 March 2015

San Diego

Astronauts flying on the
International Space Station took this photograph of California’s
southernmost coastal city. The mouth of San Diego Bay, between North
Island and the Point Loma peninsula, is just over a kilometer wide. The
rocky coast near Point Loma appears jagged compared to the smooth curve
of the sandy beach on North Island.

Despite some thin clouds, the image shows port facilities and the San
Diego International Airport. Near the mouth of the bay, numerous
civilian boats occupy the marinas at Shelter Island and Harbor Island
(south and southwest of the airport).

The curved Coronado peninsula (also termed North Island) is a
well-known landmark for astronauts and home to Naval Air Station North
Island, the largest aerospace employer in region. The San Diego-Coronado
Bay Bridge links the peninsula to the mainland. The U.S. West Coast
fleet is based across the bay at Naval Base San Diego, with thirteen
long piers for warships.

Shadows mark the downtown high-rise buildings in this midday shot.
Further inland, hills and canyon cliffs also casts shadows in
finger-like patterns. The local interstate highway arcs around the
downtown city center, with several other highway curves visible in this
otherwise gridded urban landscape.
You can view a broader image of the international San Diego-Tijuana conurbation by clicking here.

Astronaut photograph ISS042-E-117496
was acquired on January 10, 2015, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using
an 800 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth
Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit,
Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 42 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab
to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest
value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely
available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and
cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, Jacobs Contract at NASA-JSC.